


Kal'dorei

by SilenceIsGolden15



Series: Sin'dorei, Kal'dorei [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Heart-to-Heart, Introspection, Self-Doubt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-24
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-07-17 05:46:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16089299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilenceIsGolden15/pseuds/SilenceIsGolden15
Summary: Pidge and Allura have more in common than they think.





	Kal'dorei

It was well past when everyone was meant to be in bed, Pidge was alone on the observation deck, and she had the sudden and overwhelming urge to put her fist through her laptop screen. 

She’d just finished scanning the data from the last Galra base and it had come up empty. Again. Still no trace of Matt or her father. She wanted to scream. It had been  _ months _ since she came up here with the others, and she’d thought… she’d thought…

She didn’t punch the screen, and she didn’t scream. What she did was unleash a brutal string of curses that her mother would have been horrified to hear come from her, and closed her laptop a little harder than necessary. Shoving the device away, she turned towards the large windows and wrapped her arms around her knees, sniffling and trying to blink back the tears. The stars outside did nothing to distract her, rather they only made the tears more insistent. 

“Am I interrupting?” 

There was one person that accent could belong to, and Pidge scrubbed her cheeks clear of tears before turning to face the door. As expected, Allura stood there in her wispy Altean nightgown, looking softer than she ever did during the day. 

“No.” Pidge answered, hating how her voice came out as a croak. Allura took a step inside and Pidge turned back to the stars. 

“Coran and I don’t often use this deck.” She said nonchalantly as she sat beside the younger girl, carefully arranging her dress around her knees. She mimicked Pidge’s posture, and she was suddenly struck by how young Allura looked like this. And of course, that made sense. She was technically ten thousand years old, but she’d been asleep for almost all of it. In reality she was barely older than Keith, and younger than Shiro, and yet they all looked to her for guidance and leadership. 

Pidge considered how to answer the unasked question Allura had posed. She could go with something safe, something about how all of the paladins used this deck, and it would still be true. She’d even seen Keith here a couple of times when he thought everyone else was asleep. But there was something about this moment that made her want to open up. 

Maybe it was the late hour. Maybe it was the starlight. Maybe it was how tender the expression on Allura’s face was. Maybe she was just missing her mother. 

Either way, she said, “I used to go stargazing with my family.” She carefully kept her eyes on the floor even when she felt Allura look at her. “It’s… comforting, I guess.”

Allura hummed quietly in agreement. “My father used to take me to a valley full of juniberry and let me braid the flowers into his hair.” 

Pidge dared to look up, and found a funny sort of sad smile on Allura’s face, and her throat unexpectedly closed up when she turned that smile on her. 

“I meant what I said, you know. We do have a lot in common.”

Pidge chewed on her lip. “I never said sorry. For what I said about getting my father back.”

Allura’s smile didn’t even waver. “It’s alright, Pidge. I never blamed you.”

“It was still a crappy thing to say.”

She merely shrugged and rested her chin on her folded arms. The tightness in Pidge’s chest hadn’t subsided, and looking out that window at the unending vastness of space, she suddenly felt very, very small. She snuck a glance at her closed laptop, and the closest thing to doubt she’d felt since she heard about the Kerberos mission rattled through her. 

“Allura?” She murmured. “Do you really think we can do this?”

Allura knew what she meant, and took a long moment to ponder. Pidge fiddles with the end of her fingers while she waited for her answer. 

“I didn’t at first. In the beginning, I thought the lions had made a mistake somehow.” Pidge’s stomach twisted a little, but Allura wasn’t done, so she held her tongue. “Coran and I had just awoken to a universe completely changed, and when you all showed up I was… concerned. You’re all so young. Hunk was so afraid, Lance didn’t seem to take anything seriously, all you wanted was to find your family, Shiro was so haunted, and I don’t think Keith actually spoke directly to me for the first three quintents.” 

Pidge hummed in agreement. It didn’t paint the most flattering image of the paladins, but she couldn’t help that it was true. 

“But after the debacle with the wormhole, I came to appreciate all of your abilities more. Especially yours.”

“Mine?” Surprise made Pidge’s voice pitch higher than she wanted it to, and Allura chuckled at her with another soft smile. 

“Yes. Coran and I were trapped in a rapidly deteriorating time loop-- it was your signal that let the Castle lock on and pull us out. You saved all of us.”

Pidge was quiet for a moment, letting the praise wash over her. This was good, Allura would be honest with her even if the answer was painful. So she could ask the question she really wanted the answer to. 

“Do you think I’ll find them?”

This time Allura didn’t stop to think before speaking. “Yes. If anyone in this universe is capable of finding two people in the entire Galra empire, it’s you.” 

“It doesn’t feel like that sometimes.” Pidge had to hold her breath to keep the resurgence of the tears to herself. 

“I understand. Stars know I understand.” They exchanged a look, and Allura’s eyes were swimming behind her own tears. “Sometimes it feels like our task is impossible, that the empire is too big, Zarkon too strong. But I have to have faith in you and the other paladins, because I have no other choice.” With a smile, she reached out and rested her hand on Pidge’s shoulder. “And you must also have faith in yourself. Because if you don’t find them, there is no one else who can.”

Oh Jesus Christ. Pidge had to stop this or she was going to start bawling into Allura’s pretty, ancient nightgown. So she flicked her eyes at Allura’s hand and gave a watery smirk. 

“Shoulder touching, huh?”

Allura looked a little chagrined and removed her hand. 

“I see Shiro and Keith do it.” She said with a shrug. “Is it not a universal human behavior?”

“It can be, but those two overdo it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

The two girls exchanged sad, amused smiles, and together they sat and watched the stars. 


End file.
